Man 'was like dog during magistrate abuse'

NSW magistrate Graeme Curran has pleaded not guilty to indecently assaulting a boy in the 1980s.Image: AAP

A man who says a NSW magistrate sexually assaulted him when he was a teenager testified to getting on all fours and barking like a dog to stop him.

Prosecutor Mark Hobart SC referred to the complainant's evidence in his closing address to the jury in the NSW District Court on Thursday.

He also described $34,000 in payments by the magistrate to the man as a way to "keep him happy so he wouldn't go to the police".

Graeme Bryan Curran, 68, has pleaded not guilty to indecently assaulting the boy nine times between 1981 and 1983 when he was aged between 13 and 15.

His alleged victim's testimony was held in a closed court to protect his identity, but Mr Hobart told jurors how the man looked up to Curran like a "father".

"When I still had clothes on I regarded him as the most important male figure in my life. I trusted him implicitly," the man testified.

Curran is accused of grooming the boy, sleeping naked with him and performing a Saturday morning "ritual" on him which involved massaging him and touching his penis.

Mr Hobart said Curran's abuse of the boy escalated during a three-day sailing trip when four of the alleged assaults took place.

He cited the complainant's evidence when he said he got on all fours and pretended to be a dog in an effort to make Curran stop masturbating him.

"I jumped up on my hands and knees ... I woofed," the man told the jury.

"I was a scared s***less dog trying to get away from a f***ing certain disaster."

Mr Hobart said the man cut ties with Curran during the early 1990s but got back in touch with the magistrate in late 2010 to ask for $20,000. Over five years, the magistrate transferred him more than $34,000.

"To pay someone after all these years ... you must ask yourself, members of the jury, why would anybody do that? "

"The Crown says that this conduct gives rise to the consciousness of guilt of the accused - he wanted to pay him all this money to keep him happy so he wouldn't go to the police."